A refrigerator is provided with an ice maker to make and provide ice to a user. In the ice maker, cold air with relatively low temperature within the refrigerator is supplied to a tray of the ice maker so that ice can be more rapidly made. A conventional ice maker with such a structure is shown in FIG. 1.
According to the ice maker as shown in the figure, a main body 1 of the ice maker is provided with an ice-making tray 3. Generally, the ice-making tray 3 is a portion in which ice is actually made, and is partitioned into a plurality of spaces. Reference numeral 5 is an ice-detecting lever. A driving unit 7 in which a driving motor for driving the ice-making tray 3 and the ice-detecting lever 5 is located is provided at a side of the main body 1 of the ice maker.
A fan assembly 10 is detachably installed at the driving unit 7. The fan assembly 10 forcibly supplies cold air toward the ice-making tray 3 to more rapidly make ice.
The structure of the fan assembly 10 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 2. A housing 12 defines an external appearance of the fan assembly 10. A fan housing 14 is installed within the housing 12. A sirocco fan 16 is installed within the fan housing 14. The sirocco fan 16 serves to cause cold air to flow toward the ice-making tray 3. The sirocco fan 16 is driven by a fan motor 15 installed at a side of the fan housing 14.
A duct housing 17 is provided at a side of the housing 12. An inlet 18 is formed at a side of the duct housing 17. The inlet 18 is a passage through which cold air within the refrigerator is introduced into the housing 12 by means of the sirocco fan 16. A discharge duct 19 is provided integrally at a side of the duct housing 17. An outlet 20 that is open toward a lower portion of the ice-making tray 3 is formed at an end of the discharge duct 19. The cold air forcibly delivered by the sirocco fan 16 is discharged through the outlet 20.
Further, a housing cover 22 is provided to define a side surface of the housing 12, more specifically, a surface of the housing 12 opposite to the main body 1 of the ice maker. The housing cover 22 defines a side surface of the external appearance of the fan assembly 10. The housing cover 22 is provided with a switch 23 for manipulating the fan motor 15.
Meanwhile, in the conventional ice maker with the fan assembly constructed as above, the operation of the fan assembly is controlled as follows. The sirocco fan 16 is driven only when the ice maker is operated. That is, in order to reduce time required for making ice, the sirocco fan 16 is driven after water is supplied to the ice maker. Accordingly, the sirocco fan 16 is not driven during the ice maker is not operated.
First, water is supplied into the ice-making tray 3. This step is performed by operating a water-supplying valve for a period of time that has been already set in a control unit. When the supply of water is completed, the control unit applies a driving signal so that electric power can be supplied to the fan motor 15. The fan motor 15 is driven in response to the driving signal and generates power for rotating the sirocco fan 16.
Here, the rotating operation of the sirocco fan 16 is performed until water supplied to the ice-making tray 3 is frozen into ice and thus the process of making ice is completed. Accordingly, the control unit detects temperature through a temperature-detecting unit for detecting temperature at the ice-making tray 3 and continuously drives the sirocco fan 16 until the detected temperature is reached to a predetermined value.
When the temperature detected through the temperature-detecting unit is equal to temperature that has been already set for a moment when the process of making ice is completed, the control unit controls an ice-releasing operation. Prior to this, the control unit outputs a control signal for cutting off the electric power supplied to the fan motor to stop the rotating operation of the sirocco fan 16. Therefore, when the electric power supplied to the fan motor 15 is cut off, the power for rotating the fan 16 is also cut off.
Further, the control unit outputs a signal to a motor that is provided in the driving unit 7. Then, the motor generates power for releasing the ice. The ice-releasing power is transmitted to an ice-releasing lever that in turn is rotated to release the ice from the ice-making tray 3. The released ice is stored in an ice storage container located below the ice-making tray.
When the ice-releasing operation is completed, the control unit restarts the sirocco fan 16. That is, the control unit performs control to again supply the electric power to the fan motor so that the fan motor 15 can be operated. In such a way, the sirocco fan 16 is rotated again.
Meanwhile, after the control unit performs the ice-releasing operation, it performs the process of checking the amount of ice stored in the ice storage container in order to determine whether to perform the process of making ice again. To this end, power for an ice-detecting operation is supplied from the motor in the driving unit 7.
The ice-detecting lever 5 is rotated by means of the power generated as above and determines whether the ice storage container has been fully filled with ice. When the ice-detecting lever 5 comes into contact with ice and is restricted in view of its rotating range during rotation thereof, a micro switch constructed to be mechanically interlocked with the ice-detecting lever 5 is operated to generate a signal according to the full state of the ice and transmit the signal to the control unit.
Once the control unit recognizes that the ice storage container is fully filled with the ice, the control unit no longer controls the ice-making operation. Then, the control unit applies a signal for cutting off the electric power supplied to the fan motor so as to stop the operation of the fan motor 15. Here, since the ice-making operation is no longer performed, the rotation of the fan 16 is also limited. However, if a state where the ice storage container is not fully filled with ice is detected, the control unit repeatedly performs control of the water-supplying operation, the ice-making operation and the ice-releasing operation.
However, there are the following problems in the prior art.
First, a relatively great number of parts are required to construct the fan assembly 10. The additional fan motor 15 is required for driving the fan 16 and the fan housing 14 is required for guiding an air stream formed by the fan 16. Further, about ten (10) screws are needed for fastening the fan housing, the housing 12, the duct housing 17 and the housing cover 22 to one another.
Accordingly, the conventional ice maker has problems in that it is difficult to manage constituent parts and manufacturing costs are increased due to the large number of parts, and assembly workability is deteriorated due to a plurality of screwing operations for assembling the parts.
Further, the fan motor 15 constituting the conventional fan assembly 10 is an AC motor that has a relatively large volume and heavy weight. Moreover, since the fan housing 14 is provided in the fan assembly 10, the entire weight of the fan assembly 10 is increased. Accordingly, considering the ice maker as a whole, the center of gravity of the ice maker is biased toward the fan assembly 10 and thus there is a problem in that the design of installation of the ice maker is complicated.
Furthermore, since openings of the inlet 18 and outlet 20 do not exit on a straight line in the conventional fan assembly 10, the flow of cold air is not smooth relatively. That is, there is a problem in that a relatively large loss of the flow of the cold air which flows within the fan assembly 12 is produced.
Meanwhile, the conventional ice maker is controlled such that ON/OFF operations of the fan are performed twice during one (1) cycle including the water-supplying operation, the ice-making operation, the ice-releasing operation and the operation for detecting the state where the ice storage container is fully filled with ice. That is, the ON/OFF operation of the fan is performed once during the process of releasing ice, and the ON/OFF operation of the fan is performed once again after the process of detecting the state where the ice storage container is fully filled with ice and the process of supplying water.
In the conventional ice maker controlled as described above, there is a problem in that the ON/OFF operations of the fan are unnecessarily performed since the fan is operated twice during one cycle, thereby shortening the life of the fan.